DON'T YOU WANT TO KNOW?
Hey, What’s the HOLLAR?!
Creative Leader, Artful Storyteller. My name is Herbie Hollar, and I am a seasoned and versatile marketing communications professional in famously hot Columbia, SC. With over two decades of experience, my work is focused on developing compelling brand narratives, creating emotionally engaging designs, and fostering meaningful audience connections through innovative storytelling and strategic marketing initiatives.
My career spans both agency and in-house environments, where I have earned a reputation as an award-winning creative. Through collaboration and leadership, I aim to empower teams and organizations to elevate their brands, present resonating narratives, and achieve impactful results. My skills encompass: creative direction, art direction/design, commercial-safe AI, branding, digital marketing, multi-channel marketing, photo direction, and video editing.
Throughout my career, I’ve been described as an entrepreneurial, creative thinker: I can take a small budget and stretch it with innovative concepts that have legs. I believe in storytelling that gets attention by engaging the viewer, creating an emotional connection, and generating a direct action or a lasting impression.
As Lead of Creative Strategy and Design at CampusWorks, I drove the visual design, branding, and creative execution of CampusWorks’ internal and external communications. I partnered closely with marketing communications teammates, business development, client engagement, human resources, operations, and executive leadership to produce marketing campaigns, branded communications, and visual assets that supported organizational growth, client engagement, and recruiting efforts.
Before CampusWorks, I was Creative Director at Softdocs, a K-12 and Higher Ed software, where I transformed the look of a small company into a much larger looking one by advancing the brand and led my team in delivering transformational marketing initiatives.
I cut my agency teeth at Chernoff Newman, where I was a Senior Art Director for about 10 years. Among the many hats I wore, one was being the art director that helped launch the SC Department of Agriculture’s first campaign to promote SC produce and products, Certified SC Grown. I worked closely with the writer and creative director to develop the big idea and look for this new brand and its multi-million dollar campaign that spanned print, broadcast, and interactive—and even actors dressed up as fruits and vegetables rallying in the streets.
And before that, I learned the in-house corporate communications world as a Senior Art Director at BlueCross BlueShield South Carolina. My work included annual reports, hand-painted posters, long format brochures, and even tags for jeans and fedoras.
And even before that, I freelanced for the agency I would eventual join, as well as numerous small businesses doing everything from logos and identity to motion graphics, videography, copy writing and outdoor adverting.
*ADDYs and other awards from AIGA, PRSA, IABC—all the letters
